Last week in our online poll we asked this question: “Should the House of Representatives stand on budget cuts, even if not passing a budget shuts down the government?”
And we offered these four answers, with response numbers at the end:
- Doesn’t matter. It’s just more GOP theater – either way they’ll lose. 23%
- Yes, we have to stop spending ourselves into bankruptcy. 47%
- No, because government shutdowns always cost Republicans more politically. 27%
- Doesn’t matter. The U.S. is already too far gone on so many levels. 3%
Of course, as is the case in so many questions about our federal government, this week’s topic came loaded with associated issues: 1) the basic obligation of getting a budget passed; 2) the political leverage both parties try to acquire in the process; 3) the dysfunction of deficit spending; 4) our prohibitive national debt; and, of course, 5) the beautifully messy system we call a representative republic that doesn’t leave the minority without options, however limited. Our aim this week was to offer answer options that would cover these issues.
In America, there’s an entire court system and set of laws devoted to what happens to regular folks when their financial reality looks like that of our federal government today. It’s called the bankruptcy system. So perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised to see that[Continue Reading]